ATMs ‘On Borrowed Time’

No-one – except perhaps Fairfax Media – is suggesting they will go totally out of business, but a new report suggests ATM use in Australian is declining significantly.

The CommSec company has analysed Reserve Bank data to find that ATM withdrawals dropped 6.4 percent in March. The company also found that withdrawals had dropped by a record total of 7.2 percent in 2015.

“This is a significant annual decline and it highlights the trend towards a cashless society,” CommSec chief economist Craig James told newswire AAP. Innovations in technology, including PayPass and Paywave, had drastically reduced the need for people to carry cash, he said

“This is a significant annual decline and it highlights the trend towards a cashless society,” James said. “There are so many ways people can transact these days and day by day we are seeing new ways to buy things without needing cash, the latest technology being the digital wallet.”